Food for Thought
Recent developments in contemporary art from China
On November 21 the exhibition 'Food for Thought' will open in De Witte Dame in Eindhoven (The Netherlands). 'Food for Thought' is a multimedia exhibition that presents the most recent developments in contemporary art from China. Fifteen young Chinese artists have been invited to show their most recent works: Ni Haifeng (Amsterdam), Xu Tan (Canton) Feng Mengbo, Shi Qing, Lin Tianmiao, Qiu Zhijie, An Hong, Yin Xiuzhen, Zhang Dali, Feng Zhengjie, Hu Xiangdong (Peking), Shi Yong, Xu Zhen (Shanghai), Ellen Pau (Hong Kong), and Zhang Peili (Hangzhou).
The show is part of the national manifestation 'Chinese Karakters' that will be held in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the People's Republic China. It is a co-production between the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam and MU Art Foundation/Arctic Foundation in Eindhoven and Canvas Foundation in Amsterdam.
'Food for Thought' is an exhibition that also focuses on the media, including video, cd-rom, and Internet. Some of the artists are presenting their work in Europe for the first time. Zhang Peili, for instance, is an outstanding example of a young artist in China today. He is one of the first artists who experimented with video as a medium at the end of the 1980s. His works 'Eating' (collection Museum of Modern Art in New York) will be shown in this exhibition.
Xu Zhen (1972) plays with the mixing of ideas concerning the private and the public domains. During 'Food for Thought' he will show the video installation 'From inside the body' (1999), in which he and his girlfriend are sitting on a couch and proceed to take of their clothes. Then they touch each other and sniff at each other, because they have smelled an unidentifiable smell, which they cannot localize. 'From inside the body' is about the curiosity that people have about other people.
New media
The well-known computer artist Feng Mengbo (1966) shows his latest work 'Taking Mt. Doom by strategy'. He has made a cd-rom in which Chinese opera, computer games and material from historical archives are mixed into a new computer game. Apart from video, cd-rom, and Internet, paintings, objects, photography, and site-specific works will also be exhibited. The cd-rom by Xu Tan (1957) shows the daily lives of marginal groups now present in major Chinese cities that have evolved as a result from economic development. Food, prostitution, and homosexuality are central to this work. Homosexuality in China is taboo and only visible on the private scene. Xu Tan sheds light on the role of the economy, the personal environment from the persons concerned, and completes this with his own experiences.
Performance
Many Chinese artists have been using performance as a medium, for exchanging ideas and thoughts within the so-called 'avant-garde' scene. Zhang Dali (1963) lives in Peking and uses graffiti to engage the city in a dialogue about the consequences of the rapid surge of modernization that destroys old houses and traditional hutongs.
Dali's statement is presented by spraying his profile in the manner of a graffiti on the walls of buildings and cutting a stylized self-portrait from stone. He brings these actions together in a performance. In 'Food for Thought' a series of photographs of his performances will be shown. Zhang Dali is scheduled to give, a performance with a couple of artists and architecture students from November 22 till 26, location: Technical University in Eindhoven.
This exhibition is the first major exhibition of Chinese art in Europe that focuses on recent developments in visual arts in China Themes which are important in China today, such as identity, gender, sexuality, modernization, and city shaping are also apparent in the works on show. Simultaneously 'Food for Thought' gives an image of the process of art. Visitors will be given information about the way artists work and live and about their sources of inspiration. To achieve this a special cd-rom was made. Through the cd-rom the public can visit an interactive programme in which they can learn more about ideas and backgrounds. It comprises video fragments and photographs of studios in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Canton, and Hong Kong. The environment of the artist's life and way of living and other works of art will also be shown on the cd-rom. *
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
21 november - 12 december 1999
De Witte Dame
Emmasingel 20
5611 AZ Eindhoven
The Netherlands
Tel.: +31-40-296 1663 / 293 9144
E-mail: mu@mul.nl
Daily: 10 am - 6 pm
Sat.: 11 am - 5 pm
Sun.: 1 pm - 5 pm